Metadata
WORK ID: NEFA 20169 (Master Record)
| Title | Year | Date |
| TEESDALE AND THE TEES | 1955 | 1955-01-01 |
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Details
Original Format: 16mm Colour: Colour Sound: Silent Duration: 27 mins 24 secs Credits: Individuals: Edward Roberts Organisations: Durham County Education Committee Genre: Amateur Subject: Urban Life Rural Life |
| Summary An amateur film made by Edward Roberts, a Durham County Inspector of Schools and pitman's son, recording the river Tees from its rural source through to industrial areas on the banks of the river around Middlesbrough, and the estuary as it flows into the North Sea. |
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Description
An amateur film made by Edward Roberts, a Durham County Inspector of Schools and pitman's son, recording the river Tees from its rural source through to industrial areas on the banks of the river around Middlesbrough, and the estuary as it flows into the North Sea.
Title: Durham County Education Committee.
Title: Teesdale & the Tees.
Credit: Filmed and produced by E. Roberts, County Inspector of Schools.
Title: From its source in the hills The Tees flows over hills to the three...
An amateur film made by Edward Roberts, a Durham County Inspector of Schools and pitman's son, recording the river Tees from its rural source through to industrial areas on the banks of the river around Middlesbrough, and the estuary as it flows into the North Sea.
Title: Durham County Education Committee.
Title: Teesdale & the Tees.
Credit: Filmed and produced by E. Roberts, County Inspector of Schools.
Title: From its source in the hills The Tees flows over hills to the three leaps of Cauldron Snout.
The film opens on the moors of the North Pennine with the river Tees flowing gently in the distance. Three young boys climb the rocky edges of Cauldron Snout waterfall.
Title: After receiving the water of Maize Beck it moves on to the majestic splendour of High Force.
The Tees flows gently downstream through a valley before reaching High Force waterfall which is shown from above and below.
Title: Then over Salmon Falls and under Winch Bridge.
The river now moving faster continues downstream through countryside and under a metal footbridge.
Title: To a widening valley at Middleton-in-Teesdale and pastoral countryside.
From a country road the river flows through a valley surrounded by farm fields and hedgerows. A road sign in Middleton-in-Teesdale points in the direction of Stanhope followed by traffic and pedestrians move past a cast iron drinking fountain. More traffic drives past the Middleton-in-Teesdale Methodist Church followed by a stone road bridge over the river.
Title: It pursues a winding course past Romaldkirk with its 12th century church.
There are various views of the exterior of St Romald’s Church followed by another stone road bridge crossing the Tees. The river continues to flow through the countryside of Teesdale.
Title: To tree lined banks of Barnard Castle where Deepdale Beech flows in.
Large trees overhand the river and the ruin of Barnard Castle can be seen in the distance. There are several more views of the ruined castle as seen from The Sills looking toward Bridgegate.
Title: Then past Egglestone Abbey through a narrow tree-lined gorge.
A man fly-fishes on the shore of the river. General views of a group of people walk through the ruins of Egglestone Abbey followed by more shots around of the abbey.
Title: To the meeting of the waters of the Greta.
A woman, Julie Edwards, daughter of filmmaker walks on the rocky outcrops along the side of the river.
Title: Past Whorlton and Winston o’er a rock-stewn bed.
A small boy sits on a grassy river bank, in the background two young girls pick flowers. The three children walk down the bank, the girls holding bouquets of Violets. An church is seen in the background through the trees as the camera pans over a number of fields turning towards the river.
Title: To peaceful countryside at Gainford.
From the village green at Gainford the film shows the different styles of houses that are built around the area. More houses are featured on High Row and there are views of the church of St Mary and the Jacobean Hall. Another man fly-fishes in the river.
Title: Where a Roman bridge once spanned the river.
What appear’s to be the remains of a Roman bridge protrude’s from the water.
Title: To Piercebridge.
A stone road bridge crosses the river followed by views of a number of houses built around the village green. The river is seen from the bridge.
Title: Then slowly winding its way by Blackwell, Croft, Hurworth and Yarm.
Looking upstream the river Skerne joins the Tees at Hurworth Place. A cargo train crosses the viaduct at Yarm followed by traffic travelling along Yarm High Street with town hall in distance.
Title: It reaches abruptly at Thornaby and Stockton the busy haunt of men.
From the bottom of Stockton High Street next to the Royal Hotel buses and cars wait at the traffic lights. There are various views market stalls around Stockton town hall. A policeman holds up traffic as pedestrians cross the busy road. From the river at Thornaby three small boats are moored on the water. A steam ship is moored at Stockton quayside with several warehouse and cranes in the distance.
Title: Below smoke-filled skies and between banks lined with factories and furnaces, past its busy port, Middlesbrough, it moves onto the sea.
The industrial landscape around one of the bends in the river showing factories and blast furnaces in the distance and empty land in the foreground. From underneath the Transporter Bridge at Haverton Hill the spire of St Hilda’s church can be seen in the near distance. On the nearside of the river a small paddle tug boat is moored. A steam ship “Shell Supplies” travels downstream followed by another steam ship that is being towed upstream by two tug boats. They pass under the Transporter Bridge followed by the bridges gondola which crosses back and forth across the river. A large cargo steam ship is moored alongside a quay next to a warehouse while in the background several ships can be seen under construction in a shipyard. Another tug boat travels upstream travelling under the Transporter Bridge.
General views looking south on Albert Road of traffic and pedestrians. Middlesbrough Town Hall can be seen in the background. From the corner of Albert Road and Corporation Road pedestrian cross the road in front of the town hall followed by various other views around the centre of Middlesbrough.
Further downstream there are views of a number of steel works with large chimneys. From an unknown quayside the Transporter Bridge can be seen on the distant horizon. The film ends with a steam collier heading out of the Tees estuary into the North Sea.
Title: But even waters flows down from the Hills. High Force, Caldron Snout.
Title The End.
Context
This silent river travelogue was made by gifted amateur filmmaker Edward Roberts (1893-1975) who grew up in a colliery village in County Durham and held a passion for its landscape and people. He was born on 30th July 1893, the fourth of ten children, to Thomas and Rachel Roberts of Weardale Street, Mount Pleasant, on the edge of Spennymoor. As a youth he won a scholarship to King James Grammar School in Bishop Auckland and in 1912 attended Westminster School in London to train as a school...
This silent river travelogue was made by gifted amateur filmmaker Edward Roberts (1893-1975) who grew up in a colliery village in County Durham and held a passion for its landscape and people. He was born on 30th July 1893, the fourth of ten children, to Thomas and Rachel Roberts of Weardale Street, Mount Pleasant, on the edge of Spennymoor. As a youth he won a scholarship to King James Grammar School in Bishop Auckland and in 1912 attended Westminster School in London to train as a school teacher.
When World War One broke out Edward joined the Royal Army Medical Corp and was later transferred to the newly formed Royal Flying Corp in 1918. On demobilisation he returned to County Durham and took up his first teaching post at East Howle in Cornforth, later moving to North Road School, Spennymoor, where he had once been a pupil. During this time he continued his education and obtained a BSc and MSc in Economics from London University. In 1930 he was appointed Headmaster of Broom School in Ferryhill, where he remained for 15 years. In the same year he also became a County Inspector for Schools in Durham City, Spennymoor and Weardale areas. He pioneered the use of visual aids in the County Durham classroom and, in his spare time, made several films including a beautiful colour documentary compilation of Durham Miners’ Galas in the 1950s entitled The Big Meeting. Other Roberts teaching films include a celebration of age-old rural skills, now a record of a vanishing way of life as a hill sheep farmer in the Durham Dales. The films were made for the Audio-Visual Library he was creating for the Durham County Council Education Committee. On his retirement, he wrote the memoir Across the Green about his early life in the mining community of Mount Pleasant around the Spennymoor area and the sacrifices his parents made for him, sensitively expressing ‘the pathos of everyday life amidst the harsh realities of a mining village in the beginning of the 20th century.' A cargo train crosses the viaduct at Yarm, location of the first River Tees port. Since medieval times, Yarm was the most important town on the Tees, but as the centuries passed and ships grew bigger in size, Yarm’s dominance declined and the role of industrial leader was first taken over by Stockton, then ultimately Middlesbrough. Both towns are located further downstream respectively, providing easier access for larger ships. An old Teesside proverb had predicted this passing of the industrial and economic baton: “Yarm was, Stockton is, Middlesbrough will be“. The 1834 extension of the Stockton and Darlington Railway helped increase industrial growth in Billingham, but it was the outbreak of World War One and the need for synthetic ammonia for explosives which sparked the beginning of the area as the centre of chemical production in Britain. A large area was chosen near Grange Farm for the new chemical plant however the war was over by the time it was completed. The plant added fertilisers to its manufacturing list and would eventually become ICI’s agricultural division. The chemical plant was again in demand for ammonia at the outbreak of World War Two, as well as for fuel and plastic interiors for RAF aircrafts. Top secret work was carried out at Billingham during the war years in relation to atomic bombs which was given the code name ‘tube alloys’. Stockton was first mentioned as a port as early as 1283 and shipbuilding was carried out as early as 1470. The Stockton and Darlington Railway was the world's first passenger railway, connecting Stockton with Shildon and its opening, like Billingham, significantly impacted Stockton’s industrial growth, making it easier to bring coal to the factories. In the 1930s Stockton was dominated by the engineering industry, but as the decades passed, the manufacturing industry declined, to be replaced by the service industries which are still today the town’s main employers. The area to the south and east side of the Tees, near Thornaby, housed the Teesdale and Thornaby ironworks from the 19th century, as well as shipbuilding yards on the bank of the Tees. Haverton Hill was historically known for salt making and its ironworks, but its legacy is for shipbuilding. The first shipyard was established here in 1917, was taken over by Tyneside-based shipbuilders Swan Hunter in 1966 and closed in 1979. Port Clarence, situated east of Haverton Hill, rivalled the newly established port at Middlesbrough and housed an iron works which opened in 1853. The Transporter Bridge has been a dominant landmark on the Tees vista since its construction in 1911 and is the longest working transporter bridge in the world. A monument to the Tees Valley’s engineering and industrial heritage, the bridge was designed by the Cleveland Bridge and Engineering Company of Darlington and acts as both a ferry and a bridge, transporting vehicles and people across the Tees to Port Clarence by way of a moving car. Like the Transporter Bridge, the Newport Lifting Bridge was also designed to move ships along the River Tees. Designed by Dorman Long (of Tyne Bridge and Sydney Harbour Bridge fame), Newport Bridge was opened in 1934 and was England’s first vertical lifting bridge. Constructed from 8000 tons of Teesside steel, the bridge uses an electrically operated lifting mechanism to lift the road 100 feet in just 90 seconds. The 1850 discovery of iron ore in the Cleveland Hills near Eston, south of Middlesbrough, brought the Cleveland ‘gold rush,’ prompting the construction of Teeside’s first (of many) blast furnace in 1951. With the rapid expansion of the railway, iron was in huge demand at this time and by the beginning of the 20th century, Teeside was producing almost a third of the nations iron. By the 1870s, the much stronger metal steel was in demand and Middlesbrough began competing with Sheffield. Bolckow and Vaughan opened the first Bessemer Steel plant in Middlesbrough in 1875, firmly establishing the Tees as the ‘Steel River’. The BBC ran a charming story on Teeside steel, where Derek Winspear, who started working at Skinningrove Steel works in 1950, recounted when he first realised the significant role played by Teeside in the industry. When stationed in Singapore for the RAF, he noticed a steel crane at the end of a jetty, which he discovered on enquiry came from Skinningrove ironworks, to which he was both proud and delighted. Skinningrove steelworks, formed in 1874, were nationalised in 1967 and became part of the British Steel Corporation (renamed British Steel), with resources consolidated into one blast furnace at Redcar. On 22 May 2019, British Steel was placed into an insolvency process, putting 5,000 jobs in the UK at risk. References A history of Teesside steelmaking - http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/tees/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_9220000/9220056.stm Discover Stockton on Tees - http://www.stocktonteesside.co.uk/-industrial-history-of-stockton-on-tees.html England’s North East - www.englandsnortheast.co.uk |
